RANCHO CUCAMONGA 
After a brief detour, the Temecula Valley High wrestling team seems to have ascended back to the pinnacle of the CIF Southern Section.

On Saturday, the Golden Bears ran away with the team title at the CIF Southern Section Inland Wrestling Championships, easily outdistancing runner-up West Torrance 233-156 at Rancho Cucamonga Los Osos High School.

Temecula Valley’s team tournament championship comes on the heels of winning the Division I dual-meet title last week. This marks the 13th time in program that both the team tournament championship and dual-meet title have been captured in the same season.

The Bears uncharacteristically failed to win either one in 2011-12.

Temecula Valley sophomore Joshy Cortez, the individual champion at 126 pounds, said the team’s togetherness was the missing ingredient from last year’s squad that fell short.

“When you’re on the mat and you’re wrestling, and you’re down (in points) and you look up,” Cortez said, “you see your whole team standing there, rooting you on. You just get this feeling, I can do it now. That’s one of the best feelings you get when you wrestle.”

Cortez was joined on the first-place podium by teammates Christian Root (106), Frankie Sandoval (113) and Kyler Phillips (138). Temecula Valley advanced eight wrestlers to next Saturday’s Masters meet, which they host. But Bears coach Arnold Alpert had mixed emotions after his standout 145-pound wrestler, Leonel Mendez, failed to advance.

“As happy as we can be for eight, I am just as sad for the one,” Alpert said. “It’s a great feeling, but it’s also a horrible feeling. The title, I would trade that title in a heartbeat to have that kid going onto Masters.”

In terms of individual performances, no local shined brighter than Elsinore’s Dustin Kirk. Kirk was named lower weight MVP at 120 pounds after he recorded four falls throughout the tournament, including a 1:58 pin of West Torrance’s Yoshi Funakoshi in the final.

“He’s come a long way under less than ideal circumstances,” Elsinore coach Jeff Hickok said. “He has some external family support, but he doesn’t have the traditional family support. He just sets some goals in front of himself and works tirelessly to try to achieve them.”

Kirk has been living on his own this year, paying for rent and essential expenses such as food out of his own pocket. He hasn’t been able to work since the start of wrestling season as he spends up to six hours a day devoted to his craft.

Despite his challenging living situation, Kirk has thrived in the classroom as a senior with a 4.0 grade-point average after recording a 0.8 GPA as a freshman.

“I realized that hard work pays off,” Kirk said. “I came into the wrestling room and I just loved it. Freshman year, I was just a bad kid. I wasn’t going to class. Sophomore year, I found wrestling. It clicked for me.”